Thursday, November 01, 2007

A Father's Dilemma

Herman had chronicled his son's life from the day he was born, writing down details that only parents have the urge to remember for ever and ever.
But it also memorialized anecdotes like the time when he sat with my wife on the front step of our home and watched as a bird crashed headfirst into our front window. Unshaken by the limits of his 2-year-old vocabulary, he turned to my wife, put his hands to his head and quietly offered up his assessment of the bird's plight: "Helmet" was all he said.
Now, eighteen years and 250 pages later, the baby is a grown man and has flown the coop for college. What is the father to do?

Herman has his turn in Newsweek.

4 comments:

Parul said...

Hi

First time here, came by from dotmom's.

Isn't this the fear that we all live in - as mom to a six month old, I am already saying - 35 more six month periods like this, and he will be gone....

In complete understanding...

Parul

Tharini said...

That was just beautiful. Just beautiful. I could relate to it sooo much. The heartbreaking part of it was that it wasn't the right time to give the journals to him. It made me think about a probable reality ...what if my sons do not want to read all this stuff?

But then he said it himself...it was for him. I guess that's the true spirit in which you should write. Minus the expectations and 100% involvement!

Thanks for linking to such a beautiful article.

Btw, I looooove your new header. Its very pretty and vibrant!

Sujatha Bagal said...

Parul, when you put it like that it does seem like such a short period! All the more reason to seize every moment and commit it to memory as best we can. And welcome to my blog. :)

Tharini, that's the truth - that we're doing whatever we are doing for us. Not only chronicling their life, but the whole parenting thing. It's a great way to remove the "guilt" factor out of our equations with our children.

Choxbox said...

thanks for the link sujatha. nearly brought tears in my eyes.

delinking from the idea of our kids appreciating our efforts is what i strive to do. it frees up all parties - them and us.